antler

the branched, annually shed, bony growth on the head of any animal of the deer family

any branch of such a growth

Origin of antler

Middle English aunteler ; from Old French antoillier ; from uncertain or unknown; perhaps

antler

noun

One of a pair of hornlike, bony, deciduous growths, often elongated and branched, on the head of an adult member of the deer family, usually found only on males.

Origin of antler

Middle English aunteler, from Old French antoillier, from Vulgar Latin *antoculare, anteoculare : Latin ante-, ante- + Latin ocularis, of the eye; see ocular.

Related Forms:

ant′lered

adjective

antler

Noun

(plural antlers)

A branching and bony structure on the head of deer, moose and elk, normally in pairs. They are grown and shed each year. (Compare with horn, which is generally not shed.)

While hiking in the woods, I found an antler from a deer.

Origin

From Middle English auntelere, hauntelere, from Old French antoillier (“antler, horn”), of unknown origin. The attempted explanation deriving from an unattested Latin *(rarum) ante ocularis (“branch before the eyes”), seems doubtful, as no other Romance language has a similar word of such formation.

Sentence Examples

Both sexes are devoid of antler appendage; but in this the musk-deer agrees with one genus of true deer (Hydrelaphus), and as in the latter, the upper canine teeth of the males are long and sabre-like, projecting below the chin, with the ends turned somewhat backwards.

In the muntjac the bare bony part, or " antler," is small in proportion to the skin-covered pedicle, and simple in structure; but in the majority of deer the antler increases in size act the expense of the pedicle - which dwindles - and in some species, like the Siamese deer (fig.

I., and may well be designated " antler-horns."

With the exception that the right antler is malformed and partially aborted, and that the bones of the lateral toes have been lost, the skeleton is practically complete.